Come on in and let’s have a walkabout. But not one of those wildlife walkabouts, just a jaunt around the foyer since we haven’t properly introduced you to many of the updates in here. I’d describe this room’s evolution over the last year or so as just generally lightening things up (thanks to switching out an old dark foyer table and the dark slate floor) and layering in some more tone-on-tone texture (in the new light fixture, mirror, and woven baskets). So let’s break it down with a whole bunch of pics, shall we? Safari hat: optional. Actually just for fun, here’s a before shot from a similar angle: And back to the after again.

Our week was sent into a tailspin when we got a last-minute invitation to appear on The Rachael Ray Show, and within 24 hours we were on a plane to New York so we could DIY in front of a live studio audience the very next morning. As you can imagine, we have some behind the scenes stories to tell you (it turns out Rachael Ray was NOT trying to hug Sherry) and the whole adventure was bookended by two other big beach house milestones: moving furniture in and spending our first night there! So we’re sharing how that went – and what woke us up at 6am – plus we’re learning the hardest pieces

If you guys follow us on Instagram or Facebook, you’ve already heard the news: not only does the beach house officially have furniture (!!!) we finally got the spend the night there this past weekend! Two nights, in fact! It’s still a far cry from “done.” There’s a lot of remaining furniture that we need to get (nightstands, dressers, headboards, a top for our coffee table, etc) along with various other decor stuff that’s missing (rugs! art! lamps!). Not to mention some bigger tasks like installing the kitchen, adding built-in bunk beds upstairs, and constructing bench seating in the breakfast nook. But even so, just having some furniture (a couch! beds to sleep on!) and

This week I’m laying out why I think the end of HGTV’s Fixer Upper might actually bring some good things, and Sherry’s revealing the secret screw-up that almost ruined our beach house floors. Plus If you’ve ever dreamed of buying a second property or wading into the real estate investing waters, we’re getting pro tips from real estate expert Dana Bull. She’s breaking down a less risky way to buy your first rental, explaining why being a landlord isn’t as scary as it sounds, and sharing tricks for renovating wisely. You can download this episode from Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, and TuneIn Radio – or listen to it below! Then use this page to check out any links, notes, or photos

Beach house stuff is flying along, and we owe you guys a giant post (in the meantime you can see some pics on Instagram and Facebook) but we have some breaking porch news, which is that it no longer looks neglected and abandoned. Plus I got a little “creative” with the bushes so they’ll never die on me again. I don’t have a great “before” photo because it wasn’t something I ever thought to capture for posterity, but think dirty old doormat, dead plants, discolored brick, and spiderwebs (but not of the Halloween-decoration variety). One thing that tipped us off to the problem was taking our annual First Day of School photos out in front

This week we’re giving a listener whose house flooded after Hurricane Harvey some advice on finding the right people to help get her kitchen back together again after the storm. We also share why we’re loving a new “smart” platform for buying and selling secondhand stuff. And we’re sharing a series of recent faux plant scores that make us proud to be fake plant owners. Plus John’s shares a free tool that’s finally putting the kibosh on one of his worst habits. You can download this episode from Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, and TuneIn Radio – or listen to it below! Then use this page to check out any links, notes, or photos we referenced. Note: If you’re reading in a

You might think I’m being dramatic. Me? Dramatic? Yes. But in this case, no. Our freshly refinished heart pine floors are complete game changers in the house-feeling-more-finished column. FO SHO. I mean, look at this shot of the kitchen that we snapped when we were there this past Saturday checking them out / doing alllll the drooling: Just as a reminder, here’s what that room looked like a few months ago, right after drywall went up: And let’s take it waaaay back for a second. Here’s what this room looked like when we bought the house last October. In the words of Pepe Le Pew: “Le Yikes.” So this visit was full of bulging eyes and

When we look back at how we updated our previous homes, there are more than a few design decisions we regret – so we’re breaking down five things that we’d go back and do differently if we had a time machine. And ding-dong, the deck is gone! Yup, we ripped that monster off the house, and the yard’s already feeling awesomely open – but checking this item off our to-do list has actually just added more to it (it’s like the plot of ‘If You Give A Mouse A Cookie’). We also check Sherry’s Color of The Year predicting skills, and John explains why he rejects tool brand monogamy. You can download this episode from Apple

We’ve gotten A LOT of questions about how we’ve rescued the clawfoot tub at our beach house, so let’s just dive right into what worked (and what didn’t) and how we nursed this baby back to life. The tub existed in the house when we bought it last October (Saturday will be our 1-year house-iversary!). But it was a pretty sad existence, as evidenced by the bathroom literally falling apart around it. Yes, this is what that bathroom looked like when we bought the house. You’ll remember we later had to fully remove and rebuild that entire side of the house because it was sinking into the ground due to a completely failing foundation (!!!).

As Sherry and I shared on this week’s podcast, we’ve both been feeling gutted by the devastation that Hurricane Maria has brought to Puerto Rico. It would be incredibly hard to see this happen anywhere – but we were in Puerto Rico just a few months ago celebrating our ten year anniversary, so it’s especially heart-wrenching to see this beautiful island suffer. If you’ve followed the news, you’ve heard how the lack of electricity, clean water, fuel, phone service, and food has created an extremely dire situation there. Our friend’s husband works with FEMA and recently returned from Puerto Rico and even he was taken aback by how steep the road to recovery is for

Some people have declared the stainless steel appliance trend over (cue the gasps!). We used stainless appliances in our kitchen, but have decided against them for our beach house, so we’re weighing in on when you might want to pull the trigger on stainless – or avoid it completely. And speaking of the kitchen, we’ve been trying some new things in there lately, including jumping on a certain culinary bandwagon, bringing some organization to our fridge, and finally taking a couple of those meal delivery services for a spin to see if they’re all that they’re cracked up to be. You can download this episode from Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, and TuneIn Radio – or listen to it below! Then use

The beach house kitchen will be our seventh kitchen project (!!!) after redoing three of our own (this one’s our favorite), a showhouse that we did in 2014, a spec house for a local builder in 2016 (seen below – we loved that blue tile), and a local teachers’ lounge that we redid last year. And while that sounds like a lot of kitchens to have under our belts, the process can still feel pretty daunting – probably just due to the sheer number of decisions that a kitchen reno brings. “What’s the most functional layout? Is that too many drawers or not enough? Will I live to regret the lighting? Is it all going to come in within